Town Square

Inept Palo Alto Police Leaving Traffic a Mess

The traffic lights at Charleston at El Camino have been out since the morning commute. It was a surprise that they are still out after almost the entire day. What's more surprising is the absence of any officers to clear out traffic in all four directions, which are getting backed up badly thanks to a temporary four-way stop sign. It's fine when traffic is light but not when the afternoon commute arising school pickups are in full swing. Many drivers are creating additional traffic jams on Meadow when they all decide to avoid Charleston by taking a detour.

Where are the police when they are needed?

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Comments (4)

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Posted by j
a resident of Barron Park
on Dec 8, 2006 at 6:26 pm

At 6pm, the traffic going south on El Camino is backed up to Stanford Avenue. What a mess. I didn't make it down as far as Arastradero, but I just can't believe that the City and Caltrans would leave that intersection with just a stop sign.

Posted by Alice Smith
a resident of Green Acres
on Dec 8, 2006 at 8:23 pm

I had to leave Greenacres I three times and opted to go down to ECR and cross over. I think it is only a miracle people were not killed. When the same thing happened last month at Page Mill I called the Police and asked them to come out to monitor the situation, as I thought it was very likely that there would be some serious accidents. Their response was " there are stop signs there; what is the problem". I was terrified when I went through, and that is saying something. I obviously chose routes after that that would take me another way (Alma to Charleston) and I opted for Maybell to Coulombe to come back after my first experience with the highly dangerous Arastradero/ECR intersection. Last time I went through there were blinking lights which in my mind just alerted people to the obvious.

I also spent 40 minutes at 6 pm today getting from Page Mill through Charleston on El Camino.

We cannot expect our brilliant and competent police chief to figure out that there will be traffic jam after nightfall and during rush hour traffic at a major junction with traffic lights broken since morning. And I am sure she anyway couldn't spare a single officer to direct traffic since all the hundreds of them are fully busy with life and death situations and couldn't be spared to worry about such unimportant issue as thousands of cars stuck in the traffic for hours.

Is this the same police chief that wants us to trust her intelligence and common sense and have us give Tasers to her department???

How about firing her instead for gross incompetence? Any precinct sergeant would have done a better job than that!

Posted by Jose
a resident of East Palo Alto
on Dec 10, 2006 at 9:42 pm

Inept citizens...God forbid you have to spend an extra 15 minutes in traffic. What to do, the end of the world, it is all the police officer's fault, everyone of them in the department. All those home with their families on their days off should have been called in so that the complainers are not late for their $5 coffee at Pete's. Another example of shallowness on the part of some in PA. Get a clue!

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